Who
is Milton Glaser?
To many, Milton Glaser is the embodiment of American graphic
design during the latter half of this century. His presence and impact
on the profession internationally is
formidable. Immensely creative and articulate, he is a modern renaissance
man — one of a rare breed of
intellectual designer-illustrators, who brings a depth of understanding
and conceptual thinking, combined with a
diverse richness of visual language, to his highly inventive and individualistic
work. *
Born in 1929, Milton Glaser was educated at the High School
of Music and Art and the Cooper Union art school in New York and, via
a Fulbright Scholarship, the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, Italy. He
co-founded the revolutionary Pushpin Studios in 1954, founded New York
Magazine with Clay Felker in 1968, established Milton Glaser, Inc. in
1974, and teamed with Walter Bernard in 1983 to form the publication design
firm WBMG.
Throughout his career, Glaser has been a prolific creator of posters and prints. His artwork has been featured in exhibits worldwide, including one-man shows at both the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. His work is in the permanent collections of many museums. Glaser also is a renowned graphic and architectural designer with a body of work ranging from the iconic logo to complete graphic and decorative programs for the restaurants in the World Trade Center in New York. Glaser is an influential figure in both the design and education communities and has contributed essays and granted interviews extensively on design.
Pushpin Studios
In 1954, Milton Glaser, along with Reyonld Ruffins, Seymour Chwast, and
Edward Sorel, founded Pushpin Studios. For twenty years Glaser, together
with Seymour Chwast, directed the organization, which exerted a powerful
influence on the direction of world graphic design, culminating in a memorable
exhibition at the Louvres Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris.
In 1968, Glaser and Clay Felker founded
New York magazine, where Glaser was president and design director until
1977. The publication became the model for city magazines, and stimulated
a host of imitations.
Glaser is also personally responsible for the design and illustration
of more than 300 posters for clients in the areas of publishing, music,
theater, film, institutional and civic enterprise, as well as those for
commercial products
and services.
Milton Glaser is at present design consultant
to Stony
Brook University, Lands’ End Direct Merchants, Schlumberger Ltd.,
Bruegger’s Bagels and a number of other businesses.
From the start of his career, Milton Glaser has been an active member of both the design and education communities. He has been an instructor and a Board Member at the School of Visual Arts, New York since 1961, and is on the Board of Directors at The Cooper Union, New York.
*Excerpted from CSD, August/September, 1999 — "Milton Glaser: Always One Jump Ahead" by Patrick Argent
